Place de Clichy, new version

Place de Clichy (see previous post) is a point where four of the twenty Paris arrondissements meet.  

It’s also a place where a lot of traffic jams up. Something had to be done to clean up the place and to improve the circulation of cars, scooters, bikes … and pedestrians. This has now been done and last Wednesday was the official opening date.

Trees have been planted (have still to grow), there are new newspaper stands, a creperie, toilets, a Vélib station (bikes)… new pavements, a cleaned up statue of the Marshall Jeannot de Moncey (who fought against the Russians here in 1814 when this was the Paris barrier) … the whole traffic system has been revised.

The weather was November dull and grey (a possible excuse for the photos).

The Paris Mayor (Bertrand Delanoë) was there together with three arrondissement mayors and some other politicians. Not easy for an amateur photographer to approach.

Of course, the politicians had to greet the creperie and newspaper stand people.

Somehow I managed to get fairly close. Here you can see the faces of Bertrand Delanoë (the Paris Mayor), Françoise de Panafieu (his losing opponent in the last elections), Daniel Vaillant (mayor of the 18th arrondissement), Brigitte Kuster (mayor of the 17th arrondissement), Jacques Bravo (mayor of the 9th arrondissement) and Anne Hidalgo (Paris deputy mayor and probable candidate for the next elections).

Surprisingly, no police forces could be seen. In general, our leaders travel in black limousines surrounded by a number of motor bikes, but again surprisingly, Bertrand Delanoë, great opposant to cars in the city, when leaving, took place in the front seat of this little car.

I wish you a nice weekend!